Calvatia gigantea

[ Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > Lycoperdaceae > Calvatia . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

The giant puffball, Calvatia gigantea, is easily recognized by its size and shape. Typical specimens are about the size of a soccer ball, and more or less round. However, it can be much larger (a 5-foot, 50-pound specimen is on record!), and its shape can be more "blob-ish" than round, especially when it attains enormous sizes. But it is never shaped like an inverted pear, since it lacks the sterile base portion common to many other puffballs.

Like all puffballs with white interiors, Calvatia gigantea is edible before the flesh begins to darken and turn into spore dust. In fact the giant puffball can be found in farmers' markets across the Midwest in late summer. It is frequently sliced into "steaks" that are then battered and fried in butter. The fact that puffballs are tasteless, and that the resulting morsel tastes more like batter and butter than anything else, does not seem to deter Calvatia afficionados. Caution should be used, however, if you are going to try eating this species: be sure that your specimen is completely white and fleshy inside, and bear in mind that mushrooms are quick absorbers of pollutants; if your puffball was growing near a road, or on a lawn treated with pesticides, you should probably take a bye.

Additionally, if you have a conservationist bent, you might want to consider that a 30-cm specimen of Calvatia gigantea (roughly the size of the specimen in the top photo) can produce an astounding 7 trillion spores--a fact cited by mycologist Nicholas Money (2005) in a recent paper advancing the idea that picking wild mushrooms may adversely affect their survival. "[E]very spore" produced by a Calvatia gigantea specimen, Money argues,

. . . is important. Frying slices of a puffball in olive oil means that none of its spores--had they been allowed to develop--stands any chance of producing a new colony. No chance is considerably different from a slim chance. Simple math.

Langermannia gigantea is a synonym; for a discussion of the Langermannia-Calvatia controversy, follow the link below to Tom Volk's Fungi.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic; terrestrial; growing alone or gregariously in grass--often at the edges of meadows, in drainage ditches, or under brush; late summer and early fall; widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains (similar species, some of which may be unnamed, apparently grow in western North America).

Fruiting body: Shaped like a ball, or nearly so; up to 60 cm or more across; white when fresh, becoming yellowish or olive brown; finely velvety when young, but soon smooth; soft; interior white and fleshy, becoming yellowish or greenish yellow; the outer surface eventually falling away in pieces; often with a small cord at the point of attachment to the ground.

Microscopic Features: Spores 3-5.5 x 3-5 µ; round or nearly so; minutely spiny or nearly smooth. Capillitial threads 2-9 µ wide; thick-walled; occasionally branched; septate.

REFERENCES: (Batsch, 1801) Lloyd, 1904. (Coker & Couch, 1928; Smith, 1951; Zeller & Smith, 1964; Ramsey, 1978 / 2003; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Arora, 1986; Lincoff, 1992; Barron, 1999.)

Cited above: Money, N. P. (2005). Why picking wild mushrooms may be bad behaviour. Mycological Research 109: 131-135.

The western Calvatia booniana can grow to 60 cm or more; its surface is composed of polygonal scales (see Zeller & Smith, 1964; States, 1990).

Further Online Information:

Calvatia gigantea at Tom Volk's Fungi
Langermannia gigantea at Roger's Mushrooms
Langermannia gigantea at Fungi of Poland
Calvatia gigantea in Smith, 1951

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2005, September). Calvatia gigantea. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/calvatia_gigantea.html